New World
by Silver Miko
Summary: AxM ONESHOT- There is one reality, it's foolish to look back on yesterday...the sky unending, goes on forever...to a world without shadows


Author's Note: Got bored at work. Thought this up.

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New World

by silver miko

(My fandom...features Muraki in a red speedo)

_there is one reality  
it's foolish to look back on yesterday  
the sky unending, goes on forever  
to a world without shadows_

"Say, Aoshi-sama...if there wasn't an Oniwabanshuu, what do you suppose life would have been like here?"

Aoshi looked up from his small breakfast of rice and pickled vegetables, chopsticks poised in hand as he wondered why Misao would ask such a question. It was a solid minute before he answered.

"I suppose...we would work towards the success of the Aoiya, and everyone would go about their lives as they wish. Why do you ask?"

She blinked, and then shook her head.

"It's nothing. Just wondering."

He watched her shift her head to look outside as rain poured down from the green-grey sky. She had arrived after sunrise with two blue paper umbrella and his breakfast, and her onmitsu uniform had been slightly damp as it had only been a light drizzle when she arrived.

And now as a streak of blue thunder illuminated the sky, it was rather clear she would have a difficult trek back to the Aoiya. He wondered if perhaps she should stay with him at the temple until the storm let up.

Stay with him...more than the usual hour she did.

Most might think her high spirits and rambling nature would annoy him, but many didn't notice the subtle changes that had occurred in the petite woman. Woman, Aoshi had accepted indeed she was no longer a girl. Her eighteen year had come and passed, and she had already thrown herself whole-hearted into the role of Okashira. She had decided to learn the "proper" way to do it, asking Okina and Aoshi to advise her for many months until she felt comfortable making decisions herself. When she had first declared herself Okashira, she would just make a decision like that usually. Now she took careful consideration.

It still bothered him slightly, he had not wanted the ninja life for Misao. She deserved a normal life of dolls not kunai. But it was the life that made her happy. She had been asked to end the Oniwabanshuu when Okina had fallen by Aoshi's own blades, injured. She chose to defy, to keep together the family and way of life she knew.

It made her happy, she chose this life, who was he to argue? He had missed so much of her life as was that he supposed he just assumed she was too young, too innocent for such a life. He quickly learned, upon his return and during the rebuilding of the Aoiya after the Shishio incident that Misao was indeed a ninja at heart, but still needed some polish in her training.

It was clear the other Oniwabanshuu hadn't encouraged her to progress in training, and thus after thinking upon it carefully, decided to resume her training. She needed to be prepared. She was pretty good at holding her own against most people, but people like The Juppongatanna, Battousai, himself...

He trained with her for two hours everyday before dinner, in the fields, through her seventeenth year and up to now...just before she was to turn nineteen.

Okina had been at first wary of Misao resuming training, but Aoshi had insisted it best she be prepared as she had no intention of abandoning the lifestyle she knew.

And so now, in that quiet space of the temple with rain falling, it was truly odd for her to ask such a thing. Perhaps she was merely making conversation.

She always talked to him, about everything. About nothing. As of late she had been more reserved, simply content in being silently in his presence.

"I think, Aoshi-sama, perhaps I shall keep you company for longer than usual. I don't need to kill myself walking back in this." she mused, her voice holding a slight hint of amusement.

"Aa. Perhaps we shall incorporate meditation into your training." he spoke, facing her now as she readjusted herself to mirror the lotus position he sat in.

"I suppose, I don't have much else to say at the moment. Clearing my head is sounding really good at the moment."

He watched as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her form surprisingly perfect. Had she meditated before?

He wondered what was on her mind that she needed to clear it, perhaps something was stressing her?

As of late he noticed himself more and more thinking of her. What she was thinking, feeling, what she was doing. It was no secret that she seemed to know the most about him, and he her. Despite the long years apart, they had an undeniable connection.

He knew she was in love with him. It was blatant. At first he merely assumed it was a carry-over from her childhood infatuation, but the way she looked at him and spoke to him made him realize it went deeper.

He knew she had never thought once about more than friendship with any other man, probably never would even though Aoshi made no move on his part to respond to her feelings. Truthfully, he did not know how to respond.

Love...for so long he suppressed such emotions, since he was fifteen. He had to be strong, like a stone. There was no room for love in his world. No, that was not true. He had known love, an undeniable warmth in his heart. It began when he first gazed into those large ocean blue eyes, and for all his transgressions and misdeeds...it remained in his heart like a fluttering butterfly, silent. He had loved her when she was child, took care of her, did what he thought best for her. Then it had been an almost brotherly love, but now...

He knew over the years he wondered about her, what she had looked like when she grew older and when he returned there she was- sixteen, almost grown. Part of him never wanted to see her grow up, never see her change. The other part knew she was growing, knew it was unstoppable...wanted to see her grown.

He supposed everything had to change at some point, the past had to stay the past, people moved on, new times began.

He would always cherish those days, when she was young and they all had happy lives. He would reflect and learn from the dark days of Kanryuu and Shishio, and he would work hard to move forth into the new era, to find peace. To live in this day and age with the other Oniwabanshuu, to try to be happy again.

He opened his eyes, and looked at her...and almost smiled.

She was drooped forward...snoring softly.

Moving to her side, he set her down on her side so she could sleep more comfortably. He had heard her pacing about the night before and deduced she had slept poorly. He would let her sleep now while he meditated, even though he knew all he would think of was her.

Perhaps, he thought, it was time to think about how to respond to her feelings.

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The rain had let up after noon, and Aoshi accompanied Misao back to the Aoiya. She had woken up two hours later, apologizing softly for falling asleep. He said it was fine, as she needed to catch up on sleep.

He was sure now there was something on her mind. She ran up the stairs to her room, shutting her shoji, and Aoshi knew he would have to wait before questioning her.

As she slept he had thought, and a decision had finally came to him.

"Dinner!" Okon yelled, ushering Shiro and Kuro into the dining room as Aoshi silently followed. Everyone was at the table except for Misao, and Okon sighed, standing with hands on hips.

"MISAO-CHAN! DINNER!"

"Yea yea, I'm coming!" Misao called out, and they heard her bouncing down the stairs.

As she entered the kitchen, everyone looked up with wide eyes and jaws slacked, well everyone but Aoshi.

"M..Misao-chan?" Omasu asked.

Misao, who had always worn either her lavender onmitsu uniform or shorts and a loose top, now stood wearing a pink and white gi and darker pink hakama.

"Those clothes...they're.." Okina trailed off.

"They are mine." Misao said dismissively, and motioned with her hands for Okon to sit down.

Once the brunette ninja was seated, and Misao exhaled.

"I have an announcement, and I want you all to listen silently until I am finished."

They looked at her almost as if she had grown another head, except for Aoshi who had a feeling he wouldn't have to ask her what was bothering her. She seemed to be about to reveal it.

"I know you all wish I had not become involved with the Oniwbanshuu, and that I had grown up as a normal girl, but that was just not possible and I would have never wanted to live another way. This lifestyle...is mine, is what made me happy, it was home to me. The Oniwabanshuu is my family, and once when Okina asked me to disband it, I refused. I named myself Okashira, I kept the clan in existence."

She paused, taking a small breath.

"For over three hundred years the Oniwabanshuu has served Japan, working and striving towards making a peaceful nation. As a Makimachi, the clan that led this proud organization all this time, I am truly honored that I was born into this clan. That is why I have been thinking of this carefully for some time now, and my heart was very conflicted over this, but I believe this is the best decision. There are things a ninja cannot escape, and time is one of these things. We have reached an era of change, and this nation has finally headed towards peace...and so I have decided that from this day forward that the status of the Oniwbanshuu is to remain dormant until such a situation arises in such great emergency that we are needed once more."

There was gasping, as Misao knew there would be. No one would have ever expected she of all people would come to such a decision.

"As of today, the Oniwbanshuu shall cease in endeavoring in any missions, unless deemed to be of undeniable priority by myself. It is time we all moved on towards peace in this new era."

It was then with a shaky breath she drew a kunai from her waist tie, and grabbed the end of her braid. With a quick jerk, the knife sliced through the braided hair and it floated to the floor slowly. She dropped the kunai to the floor and shook her hair out. It now fell in almost choppy layers to above her shoulder.

"I was born a child of the Oniwabanshuu...but it is inevitable that those times have come and passed. I have accepted that it is time to move forward."

Aoshi looked upon her awe, bewilderment, admiration.

Cutting her hair which had always been braided, no longer wearing her onmitsu uniform...it was symbolic of the change she spoke of. The

Finally, Okina spoke.

"Well done, my Misao...well done."

His voice broke with emotion as tears of pride filled his twinkling eyes. It was no secret that Okina had long pondered ending the Oniwabanshuu.

Okon, Omasu, Shiro, and Kuro were still reeling.

"Misao-chan, are you sure?" Shiro asked.

Misao smiled, and nodded.

"I'm sure. I think we all deserve a little peace and quiet, don't you?" she said, her voice catching at the end as her bright eyes blurred with tears.

Aoshi knew this wasn't easy for her, she loved the Oniwabanshuu more than anyone else, had fought hardest to keep it all together, and to do this...they had underestimated her.

She truly was a great Okashira.

"I suppose now we have more time to pursue suitors, eh, Okon?" Omasu said with a wink, elbowing the other brunette.

Okon laughed softly, drawing back the yellow sleeve of her kimono to pick up her chopsticks.

"Speak for yourself, I plan on pursuing Hiko-sama wholeheartedly now!"

Misao watched with a tearful smile, looking over each of them. Kuro and Shiro were scratching their heads and shrugging, the surprise still baffling them. Okina was wiping his eyes and downing sake in a felicitous manner, Okon was chewing on her chopsticks and smirking at thoughts of Hiko, Omasu simply rolled her eyes at Okon.

And Aoshi...

Misao blinked as Aoshi stood up and walked towards her, standing still as he was close, inches from her.

She looked up in his gaze, and there was silence in the dining room.

"Aoshi-sama?" she asked, watching something shift in his icy blue gaze.

Suddenly warm arms embraced her, his head resting in the crook of her neck and it took Misao a moment to get over the reeling shock of Aoshi hugging her to respond by wrapping her arms around him.

"Misao...you truly have surpassed your teacher."

She laughed softly at that.

"Aoshi-sama, I don't think I'll ever surpass you."

"No, you truly have the strongest heart of anyone. That's what I love most about you."

She froze again, the words processing in her mind.

"Aoshi...sama?"

He moved his mouth to her ear, words only meant for her to hear.

"I am yours, if you will have me."

She drew back, blinking, tears pouring down her lovely face.

A smile, the smile he adored and cherished, broke out on her face.

"Aa." she said simply, at a loss for words.

She clearly had not been expecting that of him.

He had known, at the temple when she sat across from him, when she had fallen asleep, even before that when she first began visiting him at the temple, before that- when she was a memory in his mind as he lost himself in Tokyo and after, now as she stood before him a brave, beautiful woman...

He loved her, he could not live without her. She was always there in his mind, she was his past, his present, his future. She was his shadow, the light to his dark, his other half.

And he had been foolish to make her wait so long for him to realize it. He hadn't realized he was clinging to the past, and if Misao could move on...

Then so would he, with her by his side.

_grab the light that spills from a rift in the darkness, and raise it up  
connect to this moment you longed for._

I fly higher and higher up with the voice you gave me  
the future spilling over, pouring out so much it dazzles  
I'm awakening in the new world  
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That's all folks. Told ya odd little thing. It occurred as I was bored and had the urge to draw Misao with shorter hair. So I gave it a back story. You'd be surprised about how much crap I think up from doodling.

I guess this came off reading Ink's "Rainbows in the Water", just kinda a part in the end of chapter 3 stuck in my mind.

Dah, end rant.


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